MID-SHORE CHALLENGERS

Engaging Children With Special Needs In Organized Sports

Their words of encouragement for one another and their sense of joy are contagious as adults with special needs gather at Windy Way Farm in Preston to ride horses. Many in the group have been with one another since they were children through a program known as Mid-Shore Challengers — the vision of Robin Murphy of Preston who has a child with special needs.

Murphy started Mid-Shore Challengers in 1993 with help from her friends Arno Miller and Jeanne Rowe. The three noticed very few opportunities on the Eastern Shore for children with special needs to participate in organized sports.

“When we first started Mid-Shore Challengers, it gave children in wheelchairs the opportunity to participate in the sport of baseball,” Murphy said. “The Special Olympics wasn’t offering that opportunity then.”

The Mid-Shore Challengers program was based initially on The Little League Challenger Division® which was founded in the U.S. in 1989 — Little League’s adaptive baseball program for individuals with physical and intellectual challenges. Murphy’s son Michael, now 37, has cerebral palsy and is quadriplegic and Rowe’s daughter has Down syndrome. The program was also geared toward children on the autism spectrum.

Murphy soon found other families with similar needs whose children wanted to play an organized sport. MidShore Challengers started by offering baseball in the spring of 1993 with 5 to 6 children enrolled. The program grew to four teams — two teams for children under age 16 and two teams for children ages 16 and older competing regionally with other Challenger teams.

Mid-Shore Challengers has had over 100 children through the program since those early years. Today, baseball is suspended until a coordinator and coaches are secured while bowling and riding are thriving. The group has approximately 50 special athletes and 15 special buddies from all five MidShore counties.

“It’s just fun. It’s good for the kids and it’s good for the parents,” Murphy, who has poured her heart and soul into the organization for the last 30 years, said.

Mid-Shore Challengers is different from the Special Olympics which focuses on children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Challengers offer more opportunities and adaptation for those who are physically challenged and are a little less structured.

The program also offers “buddies” to support and protect children who take part. In horseback riding, buddies are often the side walkers with the horse and rider. Both Special Olympics and the Mid-Shore Challengers also rely on volunteers to help coach participants.

“The best qualities of our volunteers are that they have open and compassionate hearts and patience,” said Jeanne

Rowe of Greensboro whose daughter Kelsey, like many of the other children in the Mid-Shore Challengers, participates in both programs. “Volunteering for both programs is very gratifying. Both programs need volunteers to continue to support their offerings.”

Jeanne and her husband Tolbert coached Challenger baseball for over 25 years, as well as a couple of Special Olympic sports.

Over the years, Mid-Shore Challengers added bowling in the fall and horseback riding in the spring and fall to its list of available sports. Murphy’s son, who struggles with greater health issues today, still enjoys being able to bowl from his wheelchair with the Mid-Shore Challengers.

For Kelsey Rowe, Rowe’s 35-year-old daughter, baseball was her first sport and she went on to participate in bowling and riding through Mid-Shore Challengers. Kelsey recalls playing baseball, saying “I was proud of myself. They taught me how to hit.”

Kelsey is also active in the Special Olympics sports swimming, golf, kayaking, and basketball, and has won many Special Olympic medals. Most recently, she won a gold medal with her 3V3 basketball team – one of only a few all-girl teams. The girls are also great friends.

“She just took off with kayaking and was a natural at it,” said Rowe. “It was a thrill to see her do it independently and succeed.”

In addition to her daughter learning sports skills, Rowe reflects on the friends and network they have been a part of, as well as the enjoyment and fitness aspects of participation.

“We would have Christmas parties and picnics,” Rowe said. “Kelsey got a whole network of friends from this.”

Mid-Shore Challengers has been using Courageous Hearts Horsemanship (CHH) at Windy Way Farm for the past 10 years for its horseback riding program. Annie Trice, the owner of CHH, which is a nonprofit therapeutic riding program, started working with Challengers in the very beginning before she started her nonprofit.

“They are so much more than my clients — they have become friends and supporters of our program,” said Trice. “It has been so good to be there for each of them and their parents through their transitions from children to adults in the program. It’s as much about their socialization with one another as it is about the physical exercise of riding. After the eight-week program each spring and fall, we offer them private lessons and special events to continue socializing with one another.”

Crossover in participation between Mid-Shore Challengers and the Upper Shore Region of the Special Olympics is very common among children who have special needs on the Eastern Shore. Sharon Myrick of Chester, whose son Jimmy had Down syndrome, said her son began participating in the Special Olympics at age 10. They moved to the Shore in 2001 when Jimmy was 19. The minimum age for Special Olympics athletes is eight years of age, but there is no age limit so that athletes can participate throughout their entire lives.

“All children deserve the opportunity to participate in sports,” said Myrick. “We believed the earlier Jimmy got involved in increasing his stamina and muscle tone, the healthier he could be in his life. It also enabled him to be a ‘sports child’ like his peers. Later in his life, we believed it helped him fight his first bout with leukemia.”

Today, Myrick is the Area Director for the Upper Shore Region of the Special Olympics, which includes Caroline, Dorchester, Queen Anne’s, and Talbot counties. The Special Olympics now offers swimming, basketball, bocce, kayaking, golfing, and cycling from January through October. There is no fee to participate, although families help with fundraising activities to support their region. Special Olympics athletes must have a qualifying disability to be eligible to participate. This can include being developmentally delayed, having an intellectual disability, or having an IEP or 504 supplemental learning plan. Athletes must complete a physical with their physician to participate and are guided as to the best sports to suit their disabilities.

“The goal of the Special Olympics is for the athletes to have success,” said Myrick. “It is a holistic approach to sports and involves the mind, body and spirit.”

“One of the most important aspects of the Special Olympics is the social network for both the athletes and their parents. It helps to form a parent support system. Parents create play groups that can take them through their teen years and help with socialization,” Myrick added.

Athletes who choose to continue with Special Olympics competition at the state and national levels participate in qualifying events held locally. If they qualify locally, they can be selected to attend Special Olympics Maryland and the USA Games or World Games.

“While not every Special Olympics athlete achieves the highest level of competition, participants gain confidence as they take a chance at things they have never tried before,” Myrick said.

When Myrick’s son got sick with leukemia, the Special

Olympics allowed him to continue to participate in his Special Olympics sport — swimming — as an adult participant until he passed away from his disease.

“Another benefit of Special Olympics is that it helps fill the gap for adults with special needs who finish school at age 21, providing the opportunity to have a social network and to continue getting exercise,” said Myrick. “It also gives the athletes a sense of purpose and joy.”

Some of the unique things about Special Olympics include that coaches are certified in understanding developmental disabilities and how to deal with them and the practice of inclusion is important, offering “unified partners” to those who want them. Unified partners are typical athletes who want to help athletes with special needs accomplish their goals while competing in a special level of competition within the Special Olympics, promoting inclusivity in sports.

Each sport, whether in Mid-Shore Challengers or the Special Olympics, speaks differently to each child who participates.

“In Mid-Shore Challengers, we tailor the teaching to each child’s level and work with the parents on what needs they have so that they can experience normalcy in sports as other children do,” Rowe concluded.

For further information about Mid-Shore Challengers, contact Robin Murphy at challengersbb@aol.com or call her at 410-822-3838.

For further information about Upper Shore Region Special Olympics, contact Sharon Myrick at 301-343-3113 or email sharonmyrick.sous@gmail.com.

Other opportunities to get children with special needs physical activity include a Young Athletes Program for children ages four through seven at Kent Island and Centreville Elementary Schools; Camp Lazy Days, a summer camp offered through the YMCA of the Chesapeake; and swimming lessons through Club One. S